


Emersion

by glacis



Category: Smallville
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-28
Updated: 2010-01-28
Packaged: 2017-10-06 18:39:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glacis/pseuds/glacis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One view of Lex's universe at the end of season 4.  What could have come from the actions of others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Emersion

_Emersion by Glacis.  Spoilers through the end of season 4 of Smallville._

Graduation day.  Guess who didn’t get an invitation to the ceremony?

Never mind that nearly every parent and family member in the audience owed their livelihood either directly or indirectly to Lex Luthor keeping the crap factory open and protecting them from Lionel.

Never mind the fact that Chloe, and her father, would be dead by Lionel’s command without Lex’s direct intervention.

Never mind that Lana Lang’s home, her very own shrine to her dead parents, would be a parking structure without Lex’s money and forbearance.  That Lana would have had to go with Nell somewhere… away… why did he give in on that one, again?  Lex thought for a moment.

Oh.  Right.  Clark’s eyes.

When they weren’t lying to him, they were pleading with him.  Sometimes they did both at the same time.

Which would also explain why Lex paid off the Kent Farm.

Not that even that merited him receiving an invitation to the graduation ceremony.

Despite the fact that Clark still called him ‘friend.’

But then, Clark lied.

Often.

 

When he heard the meteors were coming, the man the world knew as Lex Luthor recognized that his chance had come.  When Lana Lang came to him, tears dripping down her face as blood dripped from her hands, he knew his patience would be rewarded at last.

He could practically taste the power.

Then she fucked him over

Again.

He shoved her in the helicopter after reassuring her with great sincerity that she meant more to him than she would ever realize.  He meant every word.

The stupid little air-headed princess would never understand just how important she was to him.  It wasn’t all about her, but she was a key… the key to too many foolish men, blinded by her, who had between them things he needed.  Information.  Elements.  Obstacles to overcome.

Challenges to conquer.

She needed him, idiot little lapdog caught in the midst of a pack of wolves.  She needed him as much as he needed her, though for vastly different reasons.

And when he was finished with her, he would leave her in her precious time capsule with the rest of the forgotten of Smallville, with the rest of the relics that had outlived their usefulness, as he moved on to bigger, more important, and infinitely better things.

As would Clark, once he saw her for what she was.

A tool.

A vessel.

Ultimately, disposable.

 

Lana was gone before Lex could shake the truth out of her, before he could discover what she’d done with the element.  When the situation was less fraught, he would have some smoothing over to do, but it wouldn’t be too difficult.  Lana was easy to lead, after all.

Chloe Sullivan, on the other hand, wasn’t.  And Chloe was standing in his study, in front of the destroyed bookcases with the treasures secreted behind… one treasure less than there’d been moments before.  Chloe knew more than she was telling.

Dragging her by the arm down into the caves as she protested false innocence all the way, Lex silently reminded himself why it wouldn’t be a good idea to simply beat her to death and let her lies be over.

She knew something.

He would know it, too.

Then a bright glow emanating from the fissure in the cave wall distracted him, and once again, he was blindsided by a blow that sent him into the wall.  Through tear-blurred eyes from yet another blow to the head, Lex watched Chloe stumble forward.

The glow grew unimaginably bright.  From somewhere, Lex thought he heard a scream of unbearable agony.

Clark?

Lex?

Shrugging off the scream as he shrugged off the pain, Lex forced himself to his feet.

Chloe lay unconscious a couple yards from the now-darkened cleft in the rock.  Lex stepped over her body and stared into the shadows beyond.

Empty.

Not a damned thing there.

Scorch marks on the walls and the singularly dust-free rock floor indicated that something had rested there until very recently.  He smelled charred rock and burnt ozone before backing out.

Too late.

Again.

He stared blankly down at Chloe, who showed no signs of wakening.  Why hadn’t he let her die in his Dad’s handy safe-house explosion?

Oh.  Right.  He needed her testimony.

Plus, he liked Gabe.  And he couldn’t find a way to save the father without saving the daughter.  She got a free ride out by default of blood ties.  Otherwise Lex would have left her behind to roast.

Well, Lex wouldn’t.

Alexander would have.

Smirking down at Chloe’s still form, he stepped over her again and headed out of the caves toward his house, leaving her behind.

The meteors had stopped.  Brush fires raged across the terrain.  Smoke filled the air.  The thought struck him briefly that the ground was still unstable and there might be a cave-in.

No matter.  There was nothing left of value in the caves anyway.

 

The grounds were a mess, but the castle still stood, ignoring the meteors pock-marking the land around it as if they were of no consequence whatsoever.  An attitude, no doubt, borrowed directly from Lionel.

Lex climbed the stairs, absently ordering the staff to begin clean-up work, then closing the door after him once he’d attained his father’s room.  The old man lay, blank eyes staring up at the ceiling, exactly as he’d been placed, in the center of the bed.

Taking a seat close enough to watch and be heard, Lex hummed under his breath as he examined his father.  It took him a moment to recognize the melody, then he chuckled.

Harry Chapin.  Cat’s in the cradle.  Well, the silver spoon fit, anyway.

He wondered if he should just put an end to this now.  He’d been through this once already, when Walden overloaded and went on a rampage two years before.  If Lex didn’t stop him, Lionel might wake from his coma and go charging after Clark the same way Walden had.

It would be easy enough to stop.  One nice fluffy thick pillow held firmly over Lionel’s blank face and voila, done.

Of course, Lex could always let nature take its course, as it tended to do with Lionel, and trust that Clark could… take care of Lionel the way Clark… took care of Walden.  But Lex really wasn’t in the mood to have to deal with sweeping the charred remains of Lionel off the Kents’ back cow pasture.

Besides, Jonathan would probably sue him for damages.  To the cows.  For ingesting Lionel’s ashes.

Lex shook off the weirdly amusing if definitely morbid thought to find Lionel’s hands and feet were beginning to twitch.  There was no light in the blank eyes yet, but soon…

Hmm.  Lex thought about it, eyes bouncing along his father’s extremities.

Clark.

Dad.

Clark.

Dad.

Who was the bigger threat?

Who was the more intriguing mystery?

Lex picked up a pillow.  He knelt, one knee digging into the mattress, making Lionel’s body lurch.  Lex looked down at the fingers barely spasming against his thigh and smiled.

“Bye, Dad.”

Pressed down the pillow, and held it there until the twitching stopped.

In the cold silence of the room, Lex’s voice softly echoed.

“…it occurred to me.  He’s grown up just like me.  My boy was just like me…”

 

Sometimes late at night, or perhaps early in the morning, Lex would wake.

His eyes would widen in the darkness.  His mouth would open, his throat tight, as he tried to scream for help.

Before a word could leave his trembling tongue, the moment would be over.

Alexander would turn over, smile into the pillow, and go back to sleep.

In the darkness, chained and helpless, Lex would scream.

In the morning, Alexander would return to Lex’s life.

No one noticed.  Cared.  Helped.

Heard.

The emersion of Alexander Luthor was complete.

 

emersion

1\. The act of emerging, or of rising out of anything; as, emersion from the sea; emersion from obscurity or difficulties. "Their immersion into water and their emersion out of the same." (Knatchbull)

2\. &lt;astronomy&gt; The reappearance of a heavenly body after an eclipse or occultation; as, the emersion of the moon from the shadow of the earth; the emersion of a star from behind the moon.

Origin: Cf. F. Emersion. See Emerge.

Source: Websters Dictionary

 


End file.
